Features of the composition in the play at the bottom of bitter. M

Maxim Gorky is the literary pseudonym of Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov (March 16 (28), 1868, Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Empire - June 18, 1936, Gorki, Moscow region, USSR) - Russian writer, prose writer, playwright.

Dedicated to Konstantin Petrovich Pyatnitsky

Characters:

Mikhail Ivanov Kostylev, 54 years old, hostel owner.

Vasilisa Karpovna, his wife, 26 years old.

Natasha, her sister, 20 years old.

Medvedev, their uncle, policeman, 50 years old.

Vaska Pepel, 28 years old.

Klesch, Andrey Mitrich, mechanic, 40 years old.

Anna, his wife, 30 years old.

Nastya, girl, 24 years old.

Kvashnya, dumpling seller, about 40 years old.

Bubnov, cap maker, 45 years old.

Baron, 33 years old.

Satin, Actor - approximately the same age: about 40 years old.

Luke, wanderer, 60 years old.

Alyoshka, shoemaker, 20 years old.

Crooked Zob, Tatar - hookers.

A few tramps without names or speeches.

Analysis of the drama "At the Lower Depths" by Gorky M.Yu.

Drama, by its very nature, is meant to be performed on stage.. Focus on stage interpretation limits the artist's means of expressing the author's position. Unlike the author of an epic work, she cannot directly express her position - the only exceptions are the author's remarks, which are intended for the reader or actor. but which the viewer will not see. The author's position is expressed in the monologues and dialogues of the characters, in their actions, in the development of the plot. In addition, the playwright is limited in the volume of the work (the play can run for two, three, or at most four hours) and in the number of characters (all of them must “fit” on the stage and have time to realize themselves in the limited time of the performance and the space of the stage).

That is why , an acute clash between heroes over a very significant and significant issue for them. Otherwise, the heroes simply will not be able to realize themselves in the limited volume of drama and stage space. The playwright ties such a knot, when unraveling it, a person shows himself from all sides. Wherein There can’t be “extra” characters in a drama- all characters must be included in the conflict, the movement and course of the play must capture them all. Therefore, a sharp, conflict situation that plays out before the eyes of the viewer turns out to be the most important feature of drama as a type of literature.

The subject of the image in Gorky’s drama “At the Bottom”(1902) becomes the consciousness of people thrown as a result of deep social processes to the bottom of life. In order to embody such a subject of depiction by stage means, the author needed to find an appropriate situation, an appropriate conflict, as a result of which the contradictions in the consciousness of the shelters, its strengths and weaknesses would be most fully revealed. Is social conflict suitable for this?

Indeed, social conflict is presented in the play on several levels. Firstly, this is a conflict between the owners of the shelter, the Kostylevs, and its inhabitants. It is felt by the characters throughout the play, but it turns out to be static, devoid of dynamics, non-developing. This happens because The Kostylevs themselves are not so far removed from the inhabitants of the shelter in social terms. The relationship between the owners and the inhabitants can only create tension, but not become the basis of a dramatic conflict that can “start” the drama.

Besides , each of the heroes experienced their own social conflict in the past, as a result of which they found themselves at the “bottom” of life, in a shelter.

But these social conflicts are fundamentally taken off stage, pushed into the past and therefore do not become the basis of a dramaturgical conflict. We see only the result of social turmoil, which had such a tragic impact on people’s lives, but not these clashes themselves.

The presence of social tension is indicated already in the title of the play. After all, the very fact of the existence of the “bottom” of life also presupposes the presence of a “rapid stream,” its upper course, to which the characters strive. But this cannot become the basis of a dramatic conflict - after all, this tension is also devoid of dynamics, all attempts of the heroes to escape from the “bottom” turn out to be futile. Even the appearance of the policeman Medvedev does not give impetus to the development of the dramatic conflict.

Maybe, Is the drama organized by a traditional love conflict? Really, such a conflict is present in the play. It is determined by the relationships between Vaska Pepla, Vasilisa, Kostylev’s wife, the owner of the shelter and Natasha.

The exposition of the love plot is the appearance of Kostylev in the rooming house and the conversation of the roommates, from which it is clear that Kostylev is looking for his wife Vasilisa in the rooming house, who is cheating on him with Vaska Ash. The beginning of a love conflict is the appearance of Natasha in the rooming house, for whose sake Ashes leaves Vasilisa. As the love conflict develops, it becomes clear that the relationship with Natasha enriches Ash and revives him to a new life.

The climax of the love conflict is fundamentally taken off stage: we don’t see exactly how Vasilisa scalds Natasha with boiling water, we only learn about it from the noise and screams behind the stage and the conversations of the roomies. The murder of Kostylev by Vaska Ash turns out to be the tragic outcome of a love conflict.

Of course love conflict is also a facet of social conflict. He shows that the anti-human conditions of the “bottom” cripple a person, and the most sublime feelings, even love, lead not to personal enrichment, but to death, mutilation and hard labor. Having thus unleashed a love conflict, Vasilisa emerges victorious from it, achieves all her goals at once: she takes revenge on her former lover Vaska Ash and her rival Natasha, gets rid of her unloved husband and becomes the sole mistress of the flophouse. There is nothing human left in Vasilisa, and her moral impoverishment shows the monstrosity of the social conditions in which both the inhabitants of the shelter and its owners are immersed.

But a love conflict cannot organize stage action and become the basis of a dramatic conflict, if only because, unfolding in front of the night shelters, it does not affect them themselves . They are keenly interested in the vicissitudes of these relations, but do not participate in them, remaining only by outside spectators. Hence, a love conflict also does not create a situation that could form the basis of a dramatic conflict.

Let us repeat once again: the subject of depiction in Gorky’s play is not only and not so much the social contradictions of reality or possible ways to resolve them; his interested in the consciousness of the night shelters in all its contradictions. Such a subject of depiction is typical for the genre of philosophical drama. Moreover, it also requires non-traditional forms of artistic expression: traditional external action (event series) gives way to the so-called internal action. Everyday life is reproduced on stage: minor quarrels occur between night shelters, some of the characters appear and disappear. But these circumstances are not the plot-shaping ones. Philosophical issues force the playwright to transform traditional forms of drama: the plot is manifested not in the actions of the characters, but in their dialogues; Gorky translates the dramatic action into an extra-event series.

In the exhibition we see people who, in essence, have come to terms with their tragic situation at the bottom of their lives. The beginning of the conflict is the appearance of Luke. Outwardly, it does not affect the lives of the shelters in any way, but in their minds hard work begins. Luka immediately becomes the center of their attention, and the entire development of the plot is concentrated on him. In each of the heroes, he sees the bright sides of his personality, finds the key and approach to each of them. And this produces a true revolution in the lives of the heroes. The development of internal action begins at the moment when the heroes discover in themselves the ability to dream of a new and better life.

It turns out that those bright sides, What Luke guessed in each character of the play, and constitute his true essence. Turns out, prostitute Nastya dreams of beautiful and bright love; Actor, a drunken man remembers creativity and is seriously thinking about returning to the stage; "hereditary" thief Vaska Pepel finds in himself a desire for an honest life, wants to go to Siberia and become a strong owner there.

Dreams reveal the true human essence of Gorky's heroes, their depth and purity.

This is how another facet of the social conflict appears: the depth of the heroes’ personality, their noble aspirations find themselves in blatant contradiction with their current social position. The structure of society is such that a person does not have the opportunity to realize his true essence.

Luke from the first moment of his appearance in the shelter, he refuses to see the shelters as swindlers. “I respect swindlers too, in my opinion, not a single flea is bad: all are black, all jump.”- this is what he says, justifying his right to call his new neighbors "honest people" and rejecting Bubnov’s objection: “I was honest, but the spring before last.” The origins of this position are in the naive anthropologism of Luke, who believes that a person is initially good and only social circumstances make him bad and imperfect.

This story-parable of Luke clarifies the reason for his warm and friendly attitude towards all people - including those who find themselves at the “bottom” of life .

Luke's position in the drama appears to be very complex, and the author's attitude towards him seems ambiguous . On the one hand, Luke is absolutely unselfish in his preaching and in his desire to awaken in people the best, hitherto hidden sides of their nature, which they did not even suspect - they contrast so strikingly with their position at the very bottom of society. He sincerely wishes the best to his interlocutors and shows real ways to achieve a new, better life. And under the influence of his words, the heroes really experience a metamorphosis.

Actor stops drinking and saves money in order to go to a free hospital for alcoholics, not even suspecting that he does not need it: the dream of returning to creativity gives him the strength to overcome his illness.

Ash Subordinates his life to the desire to leave with Natasha for Siberia and get on his feet there.

Dreams of Nastya and Anna, Kleshch's wife, are completely illusory, but these dreams also give them the opportunity to feel happier.

Nastya imagines herself as a heroine of pulp novels, showing in her dreams of the non-existent Raoul or Gaston feats of self-sacrifice of which she is truly capable;

dying Anna, dreaming of an afterlife, also partly escapes from a feeling of hopelessness: Only Bubnov Yes Baron, people completely indifferent to others and even to themselves, remain deaf to the words of Luke.

Luke's position is exposed by the controversy About what is the truth, which arose between him and Bubnov and Baron, when the latter mercilessly exposes Nastya’s groundless dreams about Raul: “Here... what you say is true... It’s true, it’s not always due to a person’s illness... it’s not always true to the soul you will cure...” In other words, Luke affirms the charity of a comforting lie for a person. But is it only lies that Luke asserts?

Our literary criticism has long been dominated by the concept according to which Gorky unequivocally rejects Luke’s comforting sermon. But the writer’s position is more complicated.

Vaska Pepel will indeed go to Siberia, but not as a free settler, but as a convict convicted of the murder of Kostylev.

The actor, who has lost faith in his own abilities, will exactly repeat the fate of the hero of the parable about the righteous land, told by Luke. Trusting the hero to tell this plot, Gorky himself will beat him in the fourth act, drawing exactly the opposite conclusions. Luke, having told a parable about a man who, having lost faith in the existence of a righteous land, hanged himself, believes that a person should not be deprived of hope, even illusory. Gorky, through the fate of the Actor, assures the reader and viewer that it is false hope that can lead a person to a noose. But let's return to the previous question: How did Luka deceive the inhabitants of the shelter?

The actor accuses him of not leaving the address of the free hospital . All the characters agree that hope, which Luke instilled in their souls, - false. But after all he did not promise to lead them out of the bottom of life - he simply supported their timid faith that there was a way out and that it was not closed to them. That self-confidence that awoke in the minds of the night shelters turned out to be too fragile and with the disappearance of the hero who was able to support it, it immediately faded away. It's all about the weakness of the heroes, their inability and unwillingness to do at least a little in order to resist the ruthless social circumstances that condemn them to existence in the Kostylevs' shelter.

Therefore, the author addresses the main accusation not to Luke, but to the heroes who are unable to find the strength to oppose their will to reality. Thus, Gorky manages to reveal one of the characteristic features of the Russian national character: dissatisfaction with reality, a sharply critical attitude towards it and a complete unwillingness to do anything to change this reality . That is why Luke finds such a warm response in their hearts: after all, he explains the failures of their lives by external circumstances and is not at all inclined to blame the heroes themselves for their failed lives. And the thought of trying to somehow change these circumstances does not occur to either Luke or his flock. That's why it's so The heroes experience Luke's departure dramatically: the hope awakened in their souls cannot find internal support in their characters; they will always need external support, even from such a helpless person in a practical sense as the “patchless” Luka.

Luka is an ideologist of passive consciousness, so unacceptable for Gorky.

According to the writer, passive ideology can only reconcile the hero with his current situation and will not encourage him to try to change this situation, as happened with Nastya, with Anna, with the Actor . But who could object to this to the hero, who could oppose at least something to his passive ideology? There was no such hero in the shelter. The point is that the bottom cannot develop a different ideological position, which is why Luke’s ideas are so close to its inhabitants. But his preaching gave impetus to the emergence of a new life position. Satin became its spokesman.

He is well aware that his state of mind is a reaction to Luke’s words: “Yes, it was he, the old yeast, who fermented our roommates... Old man? He is a smart guy!.. The old man is not a charlatan! What is truth? Man - that's the truth! He understood this... you don’t!.. He... acted on me like acid on an old and dirty coin...” Satin’s famous monologue about a person, in which he affirms the need for respect instead of pity, and considers pity as humiliation - expresses a different life position. But this is still only the very first step towards the formation of an active consciousness capable of changing social circumstances.

The tragic ending of the drama (the suicide of the Actor) raises the question of the genre nature of the play “At the Bottom”. Let me remember the main genres of drama. The difference between them is determined by the subject of the image. Comedy is a morally descriptive genre, so the subject of the comedy is a portrait of society at the non-heroic moment of its development. The subject of depiction in a tragedy most often becomes the tragic, insoluble conflict of the hero-ideologist with society, the outside world, and insurmountable circumstances. This conflict can move from the external sphere to the sphere of the hero’s consciousness. In this case, we are talking about internal conflict. Drama is a genre that tends to explore philosophical or social issues..

Do I have any reason to consider the play “At the Bottom” as a tragedy? Indeed, in this case, I will have to define the Actor as a hero-ideologist and consider his conflict with society as ideological, because the hero-ideologist affirms his ideology through death. Tragic death is the last and often the only opportunity not to bow to the opposing force and to affirm ideas.

I think not. His death is an act of despair and lack of faith in his own strength for rebirth. Among the heroes of the “bottom” there are no obvious ideologists opposed to reality. Moreover, their own situation is not understood by them as tragic and hopeless. They have not yet reached that level of consciousness when a tragic worldview of life is possible, for it presupposes a conscious opposition to social or other circumstances.

Gorky clearly does not find such a hero in Kostylev’s doss house, at the “bottom” of life. Therefore, it would be more logical to consider “At the Lower Depths” as a socio-philosophical and social-everyday drama.

When thinking about the genre nature of the play, you need to find out what clashes are the focus of the playwright's attention, which becomes the main subject of the image. In the play “At the Lower Depths,” the subject of Gorky’s research is the social conditions of Russian reality at the turn of the century and its reflection in the minds of the characters. At the same time, the main, main subject of the image is precisely the consciousness of the night shelters and the aspects of the Russian national character that manifest themselves in it.

Gorky is trying to determine what the social circumstances were that influenced the characters’ characters. To do this, he shows the backstory of the characters, which becomes clear to the viewer from the characters' dialogues. But it is more important for him to show those social circumstances, the circumstances of the “bottom” in which the heroes now find themselves. It is this position that equates the former aristocrat Baron with the sharper Bubnov and the thief Vaska Pepl and forms the common features of consciousness for all: rejection of reality and at the same time a passive attitude towards it.

Within Russian realism, starting from the 40s of the last century, a direction has been emerging that characterizes the pathos of social criticism in relation to reality. It is this direction, which is represented, for example, by the names of Gogol, Nekrasov, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, Pisarev, that received the name critical realism.

Gorky in the drama “At the Bottom” continues these traditions, which is manifested in his critical attitude towards the social aspects of life and, in many respects, towards the heroes immersed in this life and formed by it.

Typical does not mean the most common: on the contrary, the typical is more often manifested in the exceptional. To judge typicality means to judge what circumstances gave rise to this or that character, what caused this character, what the background of the hero is, what twists of fate led him to his present position and determined certain qualities of his consciousness.

Analysis of the play "At the Lower Depths" (opposition)

Chekhov's tradition in Gorky's dramaturgy. Gorky said originally about the innovation of Chekhov, who “killed realism”(traditional drama), raising the images to "spiritualized symbol". This marked the departure of the author of “The Seagull” from the acute clash of characters and from the tense plot. Following Chekhov, Gorky sought to convey the leisurely pace of everyday, “eventless” life and highlight in it the “undercurrent” of the characters’ inner motivations. Naturally, Gorky understood the meaning of this “trend” in his own way. Chekhov's plays contain refined moods and experiences. In Gorky there is a clash of heterogeneous worldviews, the same “ferment” of thought that Gorky observed in reality. One after another, his dramas appear, many of them are significantly called “scenes”: “The Bourgeois” (1901), “At the Lower Depths” (1902), “Summer Residents” (1904), “Children of the Sun” (1905), “Barbarians” ( 1905).

“At the Bottom” as a socio-philosophical drama. From the cycle of these works, “At the Bottom” stands out with its depth of thought and perfection of construction. Staged by the Art Theater and met with rare success, the play amazed with its “non-stage material” - from the lives of tramps, cheaters, prostitutes - and, despite this, its philosophical richness. The author’s special approach to the inhabitants of the dark, dirty flophouse helped to “overcome” the gloomy coloring and frightening way of life.

The play received its final name on the theater poster after Gorky went through others: “Without the Sun”, “Nochlezhka”, “The Bottom”, “At the Bottom of Life”. Unlike the original ones, which emphasized the tragic situation of the tramps, the latter clearly had ambiguity and was widely perceived: “at the bottom” not only of life, but first of all of the human soul.

Bubnov speaks about himself and his roommates: “...everything has faded away, only one naked man remains.” Because of their “shadyness” and loss of their previous position, the heroes of the drama actually bypass particulars and gravitate towards some universal concepts. In this version, the internal state of the individual appears visibly. “The Dark Kingdom” made it possible to highlight the bitter meaning of existence, invisible under normal conditions.

The atmosphere of spiritual separation of people. The role of the polylogue. Characteristic of all literature of the early 20th century. the painful reaction to a disunited, spontaneous world in Gorky’s drama acquired a rare scale and convincing embodiment. The author conveyed the stability and extreme mutual alienation of Kostylev’s guests in the original form of a “polylogue”. In Act I All the characters speak, but each, almost without listening to the others, talks about his own things. The author emphasizes the continuity of such “communication”. Kvashnya (the play begins with her remark) continues the argument that began behind the scenes with Kleshch. Anna asks to stop what goes on “every single day.” Bubnov interrupts Satin: “I’ve heard it a hundred times.”

In the stream of fragmentary remarks and altercations, words that have a symbolic sound are shaded. Bubnov repeats twice (while working as a furrier): “But the threads are rotten...” Nastya characterizes the relationship between Vasilisa and Kostylev: “Tie every living person to such a husband...” Bubnov remarks about Nastya’s own situation: “You’re the odd one out everywhere.” . Phrases said on a specific occasion reveal the “subtextual” meaning: the imaginary connections, the identity of the unfortunate.

The originality of the internal development of the play. The situation is changing with the appearance of Luke. It is with his help that illusory dreams and hopes come to life in the recesses of the souls of the night shelters. Acts II and III of the drama allow us to see in the “naked man” an attraction to another life. But, based on false ideas, it ends only in misfortune.

Luke's role in this outcome is very significant. An intelligent, knowledgeable old man indifferently looks at his real surroundings, believes that “people live for a better person... For a hundred years, and maybe more, they live for a better person.” Therefore, the delusions of Ash, Natasha, Nastya, and Actor do not touch him. Nevertheless, Gorky did not at all limit what was happening to the influence of Luke.

The writer, no less than human disunity, does not accept naive faith in miracles. It is precisely the miraculous that Ash and Natasha imagine in some “righteous land” of Siberia; for the actor - in a marble hospital; Tick ​​- in honest work; Nastya - in love happiness. Luke’s speeches were effective because they fell on the fertile soil of secretly cherished illusions.

The atmosphere of Acts II and III is different compared to Act I. A cross-cutting motive arises for the inhabitants of the shelter to leave for some unknown world, a mood of exciting expectation and impatience. Luke advises Ash: “...from here, step by step! - leave! Go away..." The actor says to Natasha: "I'm leaving, leaving...<...>You, too, leave...” Ash persuades Natasha: “... you have to go to Siberia of your own free will... We’re going there, okay?” But then other, bitter words of hopelessness sound. Natasha: “There’s nowhere to go.” Bubnov once “came to his senses in time” - he walked away from the crime and remained forever in the circle of drunkards and cheaters. Satin, recalling his past, sternly asserts: “There is no move after prison.” And Kleshch painfully admits: “There is no shelter... there is nothing.” In these remarks from the inhabitants of the shelter, one senses a deceptive liberation from circumstances. Gorky's tramps, due to their rejection, experience this eternal drama for man with rare nakedness.

The circle of existence seems to have closed: from indifference to an unattainable dream, from it to real shocks or death. Meanwhile, it is in this state of the characters that the playwright finds the source of their spiritual turning point.

The meaning of Act IV. In Act IV the situation is the same. And yet something completely new happens - the previously sleepy thoughts of the tramps begin to ferment. Nastya and Actor for the first time angrily denounce their stupid classmates. The Tatar expresses a conviction that was previously alien to him: it is necessary to give the soul a “new law.” The tick suddenly calmly tries to recognize the truth. But the main thing is expressed by those who have long believed in no one and nothing.

The Baron, admitting that he “never understood anything,” thoughtfully notes: “... after all, for some reason I was born...” This bewilderment binds everyone. And the question “Why were you born?” is extremely intensified. Satin. Smart, daring, he correctly assesses tramps: “dumb as bricks”, “brutes” who know nothing and do not want to know. That’s why Satin (he is “kind when he’s drunk”) tries to protect the dignity of people, to open their possibilities: “Everything is in a person, everything is for a person.” Satin's reasoning is unlikely to be repeated, the life of the unfortunate will not change (the author is far from any embellishment). But Satin’s flight of thought fascinates listeners. For the first time, they suddenly feel like a small part of a big world. That is why the actor cannot stand his doom, ending his life.

The strange, not fully realized rapprochement of the “bitter brethren” takes on a new shade with the arrival of Bubnov. “Where are the people?” - he shouts and suggests “singing... all night”, “crying out” your fate. That is why Satin reacts sharply to the news of the Actor’s suicide: “Eh... ruined the song... fool.”

Philosophical subtext of the play. Gorky's play is a socio-philosophical genre and, despite its vital concreteness, was undoubtedly directed towards universal human concepts: alienation and possible contacts of people, imaginary and real overcoming a humiliating situation, illusions and active thought, sleep and awakening of the soul. The characters in “At the Bottom” only intuitively touched the truth, without overcoming the feeling of hopelessness. Such a psychological collision enlarged the philosophical sound of the drama, which revealed the universal significance (even for the outcasts) and the elusiveness of genuine spiritual values. The combination of the eternal and the momentary, the stability and at the same time the instability of familiar ideas, a small stage space (a dirty flophouse) and thoughts about the big world of humanity allowed the writer to embody complex life problems in everyday situations.

At the bottom is my summary of the chapters

Act one

A cave-like basement. The ceiling is heavy, with crumbling plaster. Light from the audience. To the right behind the fence is Ash's closet, next to Bubnov's bunk, in the corner there is a large Russian stove, opposite the door to the kitchen where Kvashnya, Baron, and Nastya live. Behind the stove is a wide bed behind a chintz curtain. There are bunks all around. In the foreground, on a piece of wood, is a vice with an anvil. Kvashnya, Baron, and Nastya are sitting nearby, reading a book. On the bed behind the curtain, Anna coughs heavily. On the bunk, Bubnov examines the old, torn trousers. Next to him, Satin, who has just woken up, lies and growls. The Actor is fiddling around on the stove.

The beginning of spring. Morning.

Kvashnya, talking with the Baron, promises to never marry again. Bubnov asks Satin why he “grunts”? Kvashnya continues to develop her idea that she is a free woman and will never agree to “give herself up to the fortress.” The tick rudely shouts to her: “You're lying! You will marry Abramka yourself.”

The Baron snatches the book from Nastya, who is reading, and laughs at the vulgar title “Fatal Love.” Nastya and Baron are fighting over a book.

Kvashnya scolds Kleshch as an old goat who brought his wife to death. The tick scolds lazily. Kvashnya is sure that Kleshch does not want to hear the truth. Anna asks for silence in order to die in peace, Kleshch reacts impatiently to his wife’s words, and Bubnov philosophically remarks: “Noise is not a hindrance to death.”

Kvashnya is surprised how Anna lived with such a “sinister”? The dying woman asks to be left alone.

Kvashnya and Baron are going to the market. Anna refuses the offer to eat dumplings, but Kvashnya still leaves the dumplings. The Baron teases Nastya, tries to anger her, and then hurriedly leaves to fetch Kvashnya.

Satin, who has finally woken up, asks who beat him the day before and why. Bubnov argues that it doesn’t matter, but they beat him for cards. The actor shouts from the stove that one day Satin will be completely killed. The Tick calls the Actor to get off the stove and start cleaning the basement. The actor objects, it’s the Baron’s turn. The Baron, peeking in from the kitchen, makes an excuse that he is busy - he is going with Kvashnya to the market. Let the Actor work, he has nothing to do, or Nastya. Nastya refuses. Kvashnya asks the Actor to take it away, he won’t break. The actor uses illness as an excuse: it is harmful for him to breathe dust, his body is poisoned by alcohol.

Satin utters incomprehensible words: “sycambre”, “macrobiotics”, “transcendental”. Anna invites her husband to eat the dumplings left by Kvashnya. She herself languishes, anticipating an imminent end.

Bubnov asks Satin what these words mean, but Satin has already forgotten their meaning, and in general he is tired of all this talk, all the “human words” that he has heard probably a thousand times.

The actor recalls that he once played a gravedigger in Hamlet and quotes Hamlet’s words from there: “Ophelia! Oh, remember me in your prayers!”

A tick, sitting at work, creaks with a file. And Satin recalls that once in his youth he served at the telegraph office, read a lot of books, and was an educated man!

Bubnov skeptically notes that he has heard this story “a hundred times!”, but he himself was a furrier and had his own establishment.

The actor is convinced that education is nonsense, the main thing is talent and self-confidence.

Meanwhile, Anna asks to open the door, she is stuffy. The tick does not agree: he is cold on the floor, he has a cold. The Actor approaches Anna and offers to take her out into the hallway. Supporting the patient, he takes her into the air. Kostylev, who meets them, laughs at them, what a “wonderful couple” they are.

Kostylev asks Kleshch whether Vasilisa was here this morning? I didn't see a tick. Kostylev scolds Kleshch that he takes up space in the shelter for five rubles, but pays two, he should have thrown in fifty dollars; “It’s better to throw a noose,” Kleshch retorts. Kostylev dreams that with this fifty dollars he will buy lamp oil and pray for his own and other people’s sins, because Kleshch does not think about his sins, so he brought his wife to the grave. The tick can't stand it and starts screaming at its owner. The returning Actor says that he arranged Anna well in the entryway. The owner notes that the good Actor will be credited with everything in the next world, but the Actor would be more satisfied if Kostylev now knocked off half of his debt. Kostylev immediately changes his tone and asks: “Can kindness of heart be compared with money?” Kindness is one thing, but duty is another. The actor calls Kostylev a scoundrel. The owner knocks on Ash's closet. Satin laughs that Ash will open it, and Vasilisa is with him. Kostylev is angry. Opening the door, Ash demands money from Kostylev for the watch, and when he finds out that he didn’t bring the money, he gets angry and scolds the owner. He roughly shakes Kostylev, demanding from him a debt of seven rubles. When the owner leaves, they explain to Ash that he was looking for his wife. Satin is surprised that Vaska hasn’t killed Kostylev yet. Ash replies that “he won’t ruin his life because of such rubbish.” Satin teaches Ash to “kill Kostylev cleverly, then marry Vasilisa and become the owner of the flophouse.” Ash is not happy with this prospect; the roomies will drink all his property in the tavern, because he is kind. Ash is angry that Kostylev woke him up at the wrong time, he just had a dream that he caught a huge bream. Satin laughs that it was not bream, but Vasilisa. Ash sends everyone and Vasilisa to hell. A tick returning from the street is dissatisfied with the cold. He didn’t bring Anna - Natasha took her to the kitchen.

Satin asks Ash for a nickel, but the Actor says that between them they need a dime. Vasily gives until they ask for a ruble. Satin admires the kindness of the thief, “there are no better people in the world.” Mite notices that they get money easily, that’s why they are kind. Satin objects: “Many get money easily, but few part with it easily,” he reasons that if the work is pleasant, he might work. “When work is pleasure, life is good! When work is a duty, life is slavery!”

Satin and Actor go to the tavern.

Ash asks Kleshch about Anna’s health, he replies that he will soon die. Ash advises Tick not to work. “How to live?” - he asks. “Others live,” notes Ash. The tick speaks with contempt of those around him; he believes that he will escape from here. Ash objects: those around him are no worse than Tick, and “they have no use for honor and conscience. You can't wear them instead of boots. Those who have power and strength need honor and conscience.”

A chilled Bubnov enters and, in response to Ash’s question about honor and conscience, says that he doesn’t need a conscience: “I’m not rich.” Ash agrees with him, but Tick is against it. Bubnov asks: does Kleshch want to occupy his conscience? Ash advises Tick to talk about conscience with Satin and Baron: they are smart, although they are drunkards. Bubnov is sure: “He who is drunk and smart has two lands in him.”

Ash recalls how Satin said that it is convenient to have a conscientious neighbor, but being conscientious yourself is “not profitable.”

Natasha brings the wanderer Luka. He politely greets those present. Natasha introduces the new guest, inviting him to go to the kitchen. Luke assures: for old people, where it’s warm, there’s a homeland. Natasha tells Kleshch to come for Anna later and be kind to her, she is dying and she is scared. Ash objects that dying is not scary, and if Natasha kills him, then he will also be happy to die from a clean hand.

Natasha doesn't want to listen to him. Ash admires Natasha. He wonders why she is rejecting him; she will disappear here anyway.

“It will disappear through you”— Bubnov assures.

Kleshch and Bubnov say that if Vasilisa finds out about Ash’s attitude towards Natasha, it will not be good for both of them.

In the kitchen, Luka sings a mournful song. Ash wonders why people suddenly feel sadness? He shouts at Luka not to howl. Vaska loved to listen to beautiful singing, and this howl brings melancholy. Luke is surprised. He thought he was a good singer. Luka says that Nastya is sitting in the kitchen and crying over a book. The Baron assures that it was out of stupidity. Ash offers the Baron to bark like a dog on all fours for half a bottle of booze. The Baron is surprised at how happy Vaska is from this. After all, now they are equal. Luka sees the baron for the first time. I saw counts, princes, and the baron for the first time, “and even then he was spoiled.”

Luke says that the night shelters have a good life. But the Baron remembers how he used to drink coffee with cream while still in bed.

Luke notes: people become smarter over time. “They live worse and worse, but they want everything better, stubborn!” The Baron is interested in the old man. Who it? He answers: wanderer. He says that everyone in the world is a wanderer, and “our land is a wanderer in the sky.” The Baron goes with Vaska to the tavern and, saying goodbye to Luka, calls him a rogue. Alyosha enters with an accordion. He starts screaming and acting like a fool, which is no worse than others, so why doesn’t Medyakin allow him to walk down the street. Vasilisa appears and also swears at Alyosha, driving him out of sight. He orders Bubnov to drive Alyosha away if he appears. Bubnov refuses, but Vasilisa angrily reminds him that since he lives out of mercy, then let him obey his masters.

Interested in Luka, Vasilisa calls him a rogue, since he has no documents. The hostess is looking for Ash and, not finding him, snaps at Bubnov for the dirt: “So that there is no speck!” She angrily shouts at Nastya to clean up the basement. Having learned that her sister was here, Vasilisa becomes even more angry and shouts at the shelters. Bubnov is surprised how much anger there is in this woman. Nastya replies that with a husband like Kostylev, everyone will go wild. Bubnov explains: the “mistress” came to her lover and didn’t find him there, that’s why she’s angry. Luka agrees to clean the basement. Bubnov learned from Nastya the reason for Vasilisa’s anger: Alyoshka blurted out that Vasilisa was tired of Ash, so she was driving the guy away. Nastya sighs that she’s superfluous here. Bubnov replies that she is superfluous everywhere... and all people on earth are superfluous...

Medvedev enters and asks about Luka, why doesn’t he know him? Luka replies that not all the land is included in his plot, there is some left. Medvedev asks about Ash and Vasilisa, but Bubnov denies that he knows nothing. Kvashnya returns. She complains that Medvedev is asking her to get married. Bubnov approves of this union. But Kvashnya explains: a woman is better off in the hole than in marriage.

Luke brings Anna. Kvashnya, pointing to the patient, says that she was driven to death by a noise in the entryway. Kostylev calls Abram Medvedev: to protect Natasha, who is being beaten by her sister. Luka asks Anna what the sisters didn’t share. She replies that they are both well-fed and healthy. Anna tells Luka that he is kind and gentle. He explains: “They crushed it, that’s why it’s soft.”

Act two

Same situation. Evening. On the bunks, Satin, Baron, Crooked Zob and Tatar are playing cards, Kleshch and Actor are watching the game. Bubnov plays checkers with Medvedev. Luka is sitting by Anna's bedside. The stage is dimly lit by two lamps. One is burning near the gamblers, the other is near Bubnov.

Tatar and Crooked Zob sing, Bubnov sings too. Anna tells Luka about her hard life, in which she remembers nothing except beatings. Luke consoles her. The Tatar shouts at Satin, who is cheating in a card game. Anna recalls how she was hungry all her life, afraid of eating up her family, of eating an extra piece; Could there really be torment waiting for her in the next world? In the basement you can hear the screams of gamblers, Bubnov, and then he sings a song:

Guard as you wish...

I won’t run away anyway...

I want to be free - oh!

I can't break the chain...

Crooked Zob sings along. The Tatar shouts that the Baron is hiding the card in his sleeve and is cheating. Satin calms Tatarin down, saying that he knows: they are swindlers, why did he agree to play with them? The Baron reassures him that he lost a ten-kopeck piece, but shouts at him for a three-ruble note. Crooked Zob explains to the Tatar that if the shelters begin to live honestly, they will die of hunger in three days! Satin scolds the Baron: he is an educated man, but has not learned to cheat at cards. Abram Ivanovich lost to Bubnov. Satin counts the winnings - fifty-three kopecks. The actor asks for three kopecks, and then he himself wonders why he needs them? Satin invites Luka to the tavern, but he refuses. The actor wants to read poetry, but realizes with horror that he has forgotten everything, that he has drunk away his memory. Luka reassures the Actor that there is a cure for drunkenness, but he forgot in which city the hospital is located. Luka convinces the Actor that he will be cured, pull himself together, and begin to live well again. Anna calls Luka to talk to her. The tick stands in front of his wife, then leaves. Luka feels sorry for Kleshch - he feels bad, Anna replies that she has no time for her husband. She withered away from him. Luka consoles Anna that she will die and she will feel better. “Death - it calms everything down... it is gentle for us... If you die, you will rest!” Anna is afraid that suffering will suddenly await her in the next world. Luke says that the Lord will call her and say that she lived hard, let her now rest. Anna asks what if she recovers? Luka asks: for what, for new flour? But Anna wants to live longer, she even agrees to suffer if peace awaits her later. Ash comes in and screams. Medvedev is trying to calm him down. Luka asks to be silent: Anna is dying. Ashes agrees with Luka: “If you please, grandfather, I will respect you!” You, brother, are great. You lie well... you tell fairy tales nicely! Lie, there’s nothing... there’s not enough pleasant things in the world, brother!”

Vaska asks Medvedev if Vasilisa beat Natasha badly? The policeman makes an excuse: “it’s a family matter, not his, Ash’s, business.” Vaska assures that if he wants, Natasha will leave with him. Medvedev is outraged that the thief dares to make plans about his niece. He threatens to expose Ash. At first, Vaska says passionately: try it. But then he threatens that if he is taken to the investigator, he will not remain silent. He will tell you that Kostylev and Vasilisa pushed him into stealing; they sell stolen goods. Medvedev is sure: no one will believe a thief. But Ash confidently says that they will believe the truth. Ash also threatens Medvedev that he himself will be confused. The policeman leaves so as not to run into trouble. Ash smugly remarks: Medvedev ran to complain to Vasilisa. Bubnov advises Vaska to be careful. But you can’t take Yaroslavl’s Ashes with your bare hands. “If there is war, we will fight,” the thief threatens.

Luka advises Ash to go to Siberia, Vaska jokes that he will wait until he is taken at public expense. Luka persuades that people like Pepel are needed in Siberia: “They are needed there.” Ash replies that his path was predetermined: “My path is marked out for me! My parent spent his whole life in prison and ordered the same for me... When I was little, at that time they called me a thief, the son of a thief...” Luka praises Siberia, calls it the “golden side.” Vaska wonders why Luka keeps lying. The old man replies: “And what do you really need badly... think about it! She really might be too much for you...” Ash asks Luke if there is a God? The old man replies: “If you believe, it is; If you don’t believe it, no... What you believe in is what it is.” Bubnov goes to the tavern, and Luka, slamming the door as if leaving, carefully climbs onto the stove. Vasilisa goes to Ash’s room and calls Vasily there. He refuses; he was tired of everything and so was she. Ash looks at Vasilisa and admits that, despite her beauty, he never had a heart for her. Vasilisa is offended that Ash suddenly stopped loving her. The thief explains that it’s not all of a sudden, she doesn’t have a soul, like animals, she and her husband. Vasilisa admits to Ash that she loved in him the hope that he would get her out of here. She offers Ash her sister if he frees her from her husband: “Take this noose off me.” Ash grins: she came up with everything great: her husband - in the coffin, her lover - in hard labor, and herself... Vasilisa asks him to help through her friends, if Ash himself does not want. Natalya will be his payment. Vasilisa beats her sister out of jealousy, and then she cries out of pity. Kostylev, who entered quietly, finds them and shouts at his wife: “Beggar... pig...”

Ash drives Kostylev, but he is the master and decides where he should be. The ashes shake Kostylev vigorously by the collar, but Luka makes a noise on the stove, and Vaska lets the owner out. Ash realized that Luke had heard everything, but he didn’t deny it. He started making noise on purpose so that Ash wouldn’t strangle Kostylev. The old man advises Vaska to stay away from Vasilisa, take Natasha, and go with her away from here. Ash can't decide what to do. Luke says that Ash is still young, he will have time to “get a woman, it’s better to go from here alone before he is killed here.”

The old man notices that Anna has died. Ashes don't like dead people. Luke replies that we must love the living. They go to the tavern to inform Kleshch about his wife’s death. The actor remembered a poem by Paul Beranger, which he wanted to tell Luke in the morning:

Gentlemen! If the truth is holy

The world doesn't know how to find a way,

Honor the madman who inspires

A golden dream for humanity!

If tomorrow our land were the way

Our sun forgot to illuminate

Tomorrow the whole world would be illuminated

The thought of some madman...

Natasha, who was listening to the Actor, laughs at him, and he asks where did Luka go? As soon as it gets warm, the Actor is going to go look for a city where he can be treated for drunkenness. He admits that his stage name is Sverchkov-Zavolzhsky, but no one here knows or wants to know, it’s a shame to lose his name. “Even dogs have nicknames. Without a name there is no person."

Natasha sees the deceased Anna and tells Actor and Bubnov about this. Bubnov notes: there will be no one to cough at night. He warns Natasha: The ashes “will break her head,” Natasha doesn’t care who she dies from. Those who enter look at Anna, and Natasha is surprised that no one regrets Anna. Luke explains that the living should be pitied. “We don’t feel sorry for the living... we can’t feel sorry for ourselves... where is it!” Bubnov philosophizes - everyone will die. Everyone advises Klesh to report his wife’s death to the police. He is grieving: he only has forty kopecks, what should he use to bury Anna? Crooked Goiter promises that he will collect a nickel or a ten-kopeck piece for each night's shelter. Natasha is afraid to walk through the dark hallway and asks Luka to accompany her. The old man advises her to be afraid of the living.

The actor shouts to Luka to name the city where he is treated for drunkenness. Satin is convinced that everything is a mirage. There is no such city. The Tatar stops them so they don’t shout in front of the dead woman. But Satin says that the dead don't care. Luka appears at the door.

Act three

A vacant lot littered with various rubbish. In the back there is a wall made of refractory bricks, to the right there is a log wall and everything is overgrown with weeds. To the left is the wall of Kostylev’s shelter. In the narrow passage between the walls there are boards and beams. Evening. Natasha and Nastya are sitting on the boards. On the firewood are Luka and Baron, next to them are Kleshch and Baron.

Nastya talks about her alleged former date with a student in love with her, who was ready to shoot himself because of his love for her. Bubnov laughs at Nastya’s fantasies, but the Baron asks not to interfere with her further lies.

Nastya continues to fantasize that the student’s parents do not give consent to their marriage, but he cannot live without her. She supposedly says a tender farewell to Raoul. Everyone laughs - last time the lover’s name was Gaston. Nastya is indignant that they don’t believe her. She claims: she had true love. Luka consoles Nastya: “Tell me, girl, it’s nothing!” Natasha reassures Nastya that everyone behaves this way out of envy. Nastya continues to fantasize about the tender words she spoke to her lover, persuading him not to take his own life, not to upset his beloved parents/The Baron laughs - this is a story from the book “Fatal Love”. Luka consoles Nastya and believes her. The Baron laughs at Nastya’s stupidity, although noting her kindness. Bubnov wonders why people love lies so much. Natasha is sure: it is more pleasant than the truth. So she dreams that tomorrow a special stranger will come and something completely special will happen. And then he realizes that there is nothing to wait for. The Baron picks up her phrase that there is nothing to wait for, and he doesn’t expect anything. Everything has already... happened! Natasha says that sometimes she imagines herself dead and she becomes terrified. The Baron takes pity on Natasha, who is being tormented by her sister. She asks: who has it easier?

Suddenly Mite shouts that not everyone is feeling bad. If only everyone wouldn't be so sad. Bubnov is surprised by Kleshch's cry. The Baron goes to make peace with Nastya, otherwise she won’t give him money for a drink.

Bubnov is unhappy that people lie. Okay, Nastya is used to “touching up her face... it puts a blush on her soul.” But why does Luka lie without any benefit to himself? Luka reprimands the Baron not to upset Nastya’s soul. Let her cry if she wants. Baron agrees. Natasha asks Luka why he is kind. The old man is sure that someone needs to be kind. “It’s time to feel sorry for a person... it happens well...” He tells the story of how, as a watchman, he felt sorry for the thieves who were breaking into the dacha guarded by Luka. Then these thieves turned out to be good men. Luka concludes: “If I hadn’t had pity on them, they might have killed me... or something else... And then - a trial, a prison, and Siberia... what’s the point? Prison will not teach you goodness, and Siberia will not teach you... but man will teach you... yes! A person can teach goodness... very simply!”

Bubnov himself cannot lie and always tells the truth. The tick jumps up as if stung and screams, where does Bubnov see the truth?! “There is no work - that’s the truth!” The tick hates everyone. Luka and Natasha regret that Tick resembles a madman. Ash asks about Tick and adds that he doesn’t love him - he’s painfully angry and proud. What is he proud of? Horses are the most hardworking, so are they superior to humans?

Luka, continuing the conversation started by Bubnov about the truth, tells the following story. There lived a man in Siberia who believed in a “righteous land” inhabited by special good people. This man endured all the insults and injustices in the hope that someday he would go there; this was his favorite dream. And when the scientist came and proved that there was no such land, this man hit the scientist, cursed him as a scoundrel, and hanged himself. Luka says that he will soon leave the shelter for the “Khokhols” to look at the faith there.

Ash invites Natasha to leave with him, she refuses, but Ash promises to stop stealing, he is literate and will work. He offers to go to Siberia, assures us that we must live differently from how they live, better, “so that you can respect yourself.”

Since childhood he was called a thief, so he became a thief. “Call me something else, Natasha,” Vaska asks. But Natasha doesn’t trust anyone, she’s waiting for something better, her heart aches, and Natasha doesn’t love Vaska. At times she likes him, and at other times it makes her sick to look at him. Ash persuades Natasha that over time she will love him as he loves her. Natasha asks mockingly how Ash manages to love two people at the same time: her and Vasilisa? Ash replies that he is drowning, as if in a quagmire, no matter what he grabs, everything is rotten. He could have loved Vasilisa if she had not been so greedy for money. But she doesn’t need love, but money, will, debauchery. Ash admits that Natasha is a different matter.

Luka persuades Natasha to leave with Vaska, just to remind him more often that he is good. And who does she live with? Her relatives are worse than wolves. And Ash is a tough guy. Natasha doesn't trust anyone. Ash is sure: she has only one road... but he won’t let her go there, he’d rather kill her himself. Natasha is surprised that Ash is not her husband yet, but is already going to kill her. Vaska hugs Natasha, and she threatens that if Vaska touches her with a finger, she will not tolerate it and will hang herself. Ash swears that his hands will wither if he offends Natasha.

Vasilisa, standing at the window, hears everything and says: “So we got married! Advice and love!..” Natasha is scared, but Ash is sure: no one will dare to offend Natasha now. Vasilisa objects that Vasily does not know how to either offend or love. He was more daring in words than in deeds. Luka is surprised by the poisonousness of the “mistress’s” language.

Kostylev drives Natalya to put the samovar and set the table. Ash intercedes, but Natasha stops him so as not to command her, “it’s too early!”

Ash tells Kostylev that they mocked Natasha and that’s enough. “Now she’s mine!” The Kostylevs laugh: he hasn’t bought Natasha yet. Vaska threatens not to have much fun, so that they don’t have to cry. Luka drives Ashes, whom Vasilisa incites and wants to provoke. Ash threatens Vasilisa, and she tells him that Ash’s plans will not come true.

Kostylev wonders if it’s true that Luka decided to leave. He replies that he will go wherever his eyes lead him. Kostylev says that it is not good to wander. But Luke calls himself a wanderer. Kostylev scolds Luka for not having a passport. Luke says that “there are people, and there are men.” Kostylev does not understand Luka and gets angry. And he replies that Kostylev will never be a man, even if “the Lord God himself commands him.” Kostylev drives Luka away, Vasilisa joins her husband: Luka has a long tongue, let him get out. Luke promises to leave into the night. Bubnov confirms that it is always better to leave on time, tells his story about how, by leaving on time, he avoided hard labor. His wife got involved with the master furrier, and so cleverly that, just in case, they would poison Bubnov so as not to interfere.

Bubnov beat his wife, and the master beat him. Bubnov even thought about how to “kill” his wife, but came to his senses and left. The workshop was registered to his wife, so he turned out to be as naked as a falcon. This is also facilitated by the fact that Bubnov is a heavy drinker and very lazy, as he himself admits to Luka.

Satin and Actor appear. Satin demands that Luka confess to lying to the Actor. The actor didn’t drink vodka today, but worked and washed the street. He shows the money he earned - two five-altyn. Satin offers to give him the money, but the Actor says that he earns his way.

Satin complains that he blew the cards “all to smithereens.” There are “sharps smarter than me!” Luke calls Satin a cheerful person. Satin recalls that in his youth he was funny, loved to make people laugh, and to represent on stage. Luke wonders how Satin got to his present life? It’s unpleasant for Satin to stir up his soul. Luka wants to understand how such a smart person suddenly ended up at the very bottom. Satin replies that he spent four years and seven months in prison, and after prison there is no going anywhere. Luka wonders why Satin went to prison? He replies that he is a scoundrel, whom he killed in passion and irritation. In prison I learned to play cards.

- Because of whom did you kill? - asks Luka. Satin replies that because of his own sister, but he does not want to say anything more, and his sister died nine years ago, she was nice.

Satin asks the returning Tick why he is so gloomy. The mechanic doesn’t know what to do, there is no tool - the whole funeral was “eaten.” Satin advises not to do anything - just live. But Kleshch is ashamed of living like this. Satin objects, because people are not ashamed that they doomed Tick to such a bestial existence.

Natasha screams. Her sister hits her again. Luka advises calling Vaska Ash, and the Actor runs away after him.

Crooked Zob, Tatarin, Medvedev take part in the fight. Satin is trying to push Vasilisa away from Natasha. Vaska Pepel appears. He pushes everyone aside and runs after Kostylev. Vaska sees that Natasha’s legs are scalded with boiling water, she, almost unconscious, says to Vasily: “Take me, bury me.” Vasilisa appears and shouts that Kostylev was killed. Vasily does not understand anything, he wants to take Natasha to the hospital, and then settle accounts with her offenders. (The lights on the stage go out. Individual surprised exclamations and phrases are heard.) Then Vasilisa shouts in a triumphant voice that Vaska Ash killed her husband. Calling the police. She says that she saw everything herself. Ash approaches Vasilisa, looks at Kostylev’s corpse and asks if she should also be killed, Vasilisa? Medvedev calls the police. Satin reassures Ash: killing in a fight is not a very serious crime. He, Satin, also beat the old man and is ready to act as a witness. Ash admits: Vasilisa encouraged him to kill her husband. Natasha suddenly shouts that Ash and her sister are together. Vasilisa was disturbed by her husband and sister, so they killed her husband and scalded her by knocking over the samovar. Ash is stunned by Natasha's accusation. He wants to refute this terrible accusation. But she does not listen and curses her offenders. Satin is also surprised and tells Ash that this family “will drown him.”

Natasha, almost delirious, screams that her sister taught her, and Vaska Pepel killed Kostylev, and asks to be put in prison.

Act four

The setting of the first act, but there is no Ashes room. Kleshch sits at the table and repairs the accordion. At the other end of the table are Satin, Baron, Nastya. They drink vodka and beer. The Actor is fiddling with the stove. Night. It's windy outside.

The tick did not even notice how Luka disappeared in the confusion. The Baron adds: “... like smoke from the face of fire.” Satin says in the words of a prayer: “In this way sinners disappear from the presence of the righteous.” Nastya stands up for Luka, calling everyone present rusty. Satin laughs: For many, Luka was like a crumb for the toothless, and the Baron adds: “Like a plaster for abscesses.” Kleshch also stands up for Luka, calling him compassionate. The Tatar is convinced that the Koran should be a law for people. Mite agrees - we must live according to Divine laws. Nastya wants to leave here. Satin advises her to take the Actor with her, they are on their way.

Satin and Baron list the muses of art, but cannot remember the patroness of the theater. The actor tells them - this is Melpomene, calls them ignoramuses. Nastya screams and waves her arms. Satin advises the Baron not to interfere with the neighbors doing what they want: let them scream and go to God knows where. The Baron calls Luka a charlatan. Nastya indignantly calls him a charlatan.

Kleshch notes that Luka “really did not like the truth and rebelled against it.” Satin shouts that “man is the truth!” The old man lied out of pity for others. Satin says that he read: there is a truth that is comforting and reconciling. But this lie is needed by those who are weak in soul, who hide behind it like a shield. He who is the master is not afraid of life, does not need lies. “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters. Truth is the God of a free man."

The Baron recalls that their family, which came from France, was rich and noble under Catherine. Nastya interrupts: the Baron made it all up. He's angry. Satin reassures him, “... forget about grandfather’s carriages... in the carriage of the past, you won’t go anywhere...”. Satin asks Nastya about Natasha. She replies that Natasha left the hospital a long time ago and disappeared. The night shelters are discussing who will “seat” whom more tightly, Vaska Ashes Vasilisa or she Vaska. They come to the conclusion that Vasily is cunning and will “get out”, and Vaska will go to hard labor in Siberia. The Baron again quarrels with Nastya, explaining to her that he is no match for him, the Baron. Nastya laughs in response - the Baron lives on her handouts, “like a worm on an apple.”

Seeing that the Tatar has gone to pray, Satin says: “Man is free... he pays for everything himself, and therefore he is free!.. Man is the truth.” Satin claims that all people are equal. “Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain. Human! It's great! That sounds… proud!” He then adds that a person should be respected, and not humiliated with pity. He talks about himself that he is a “convict, a murderer, a sharpie” when he walks

Man - that's the truth!

M. Gorky

M. Gorky's multifaceted talent was clearly manifested in drama. In the play “At the Lower Depths,” Alexey Maksimovich revealed to readers and viewers a hitherto unknown layer of Russian life: the aspirations, suffering, joys and hopes of the “former people,” the inhabitants of the shelter. The author did it quite sternly and truthfully.

The drama “At the Bottom” poses and resolves philosophical questions: what is truth? do people need it? Is it possible to find happiness and peace in real life? Thrown out of active life, the inhabitants of the “bottom”, meanwhile, do not refuse to solve complex philosophical questions and life situations that reality poses to them. They try on different situations, trying to “surface” to the surface. Each of them wants to return to the world of “real people.”

The heroes are full of illusions about the temporary nature of their situation. And only Bubnov and Satin understand that there is no way out “from the bottom” - this is the lot of only the strong. Weak people need self-deception. They console themselves with the thought that sooner or later they will become full-fledged members of society. This hope in the shelters is actively supported by Luke, a wanderer who unexpectedly appeared among them. The old man finds the right tone with everyone: he consoles Anna with heavenly happiness after death. He persuades her that in the afterlife she will find peace that she has not felt before. Luka persuades Vaska Pepel to leave for Siberia. There is a place for strong and purposeful people. He calms Nastya down, believing in her stories about unearthly love. The actor is promised recovery from alcoholism in a special clinic. The most amazing thing about all this is that Luke lies disinterestedly. He takes pity on people, tries to give them hope as an incentive to live. But the old man's consolations lead to the opposite results. Anna dies, the Actor dies, Vaska Ashes goes to prison. It seems that through the mouth of Satin the author condemns Luke and refutes the conciliatory philosophy of the wanderer. “There is a comforting lie, a reconciling lie... Those who are weak at heart... and who live on other people's juices need a lie... some are supported by it, others hide behind it... And who is his own master... who is independent and does not eat someone else's - why does he need a lie? Lies are the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is the god of a free man!”

But Gorky is not so simple and straightforward; it allows readers and viewers to decide for themselves: are Luke needed in real life or are they evil? Another striking thing is that society’s attitude towards this character has changed over the years. If during the creation of the play “At the Bottom” Luka was almost a negative hero, with his boundless compassion for people, then over time the attitude towards him changed.

In our cruel times, when a person feels lonely and useless to others, Luka received a “second life” and became almost a positive hero. He feels sorry for the people living nearby, even if mechanically, without wasting his mental strength on it, but he finds time to listen to the suffering, instills hope in them, and this is already a lot.

The play “At the Bottom” is one of those few works that do not age over time, and each generation reveals in them thoughts that are in tune with their time, views, and life situations. This is the great power of the playwright’s talent, his ability to look into the future.

In the play "At the Lower Depths" one of the unique genres of Gorky's dramaturgy crystallized - the genre of the socio-philosophical play.

Most critics of pre-revolutionary times viewed “At the Bottom” as a static play, as a series of sketches of everyday life, internally unrelated scenes, as a naturalistic play, devoid of action, development, and dramatic conflicts.

In “At the Bottom,” Gorky develops, sharpens, and makes especially clear the principle characteristic of Chekhov’s dramaturgy...

When... Gorky wrote: “A play is made like a symphony: there is a main leitmotif and various variations, changes to it” (Letter to the LAPP Theater / Literary Newspaper. 1931. No. 53), then he could have had in mind his own dramatic experience. The play features several “themes,” ideological and thematic complexes that “absorb” well-known ideas and moods, character traits of the characters, their aspirations, ideals and actions, their relationships and destinies, and their individual clashes. No fate, no conflict can be traced holistically from beginning to end; they are outlined, as it were, in a dotted line, discontinuously, episodically, since they must enter into a certain thematic complex, participating in the development of the “theme”, in the solution of a socio-philosophical problem.<...>

The exhibition presents all the main problems that will be solved in the play; all its main themes appear in embryonic form. How to relate to the inhuman life of the disadvantaged and oppressed? Bear your cross patiently?

To soften the torment of others with compassion? Surrender to comforting illusions? Protest? Should everyone look for an active way out, say, in work? Different answers to these questions separate and in one way or another bring together the characters of the play, who are, as it were, in a state of anticipation. Luke's appearance sets everything in motion. He removes some, supports others, guides them, and gives justification for their aspirations. A practical test of various life attitudes begins.

6. Dramatic conflict of the play “At the Lower Depths”

Most critics viewed “At the Bottom” as a static play, as a series of sketches of everyday life, internally unrelated scenes, as a naturalistic play, devoid of action and the development of dramatic conflicts. In fact, in the play “At the Bottom” there is a deep internal dynamics, development... The linkage of lines, actions, scenes of the play is determined not by everyday or plot motivations, but by the development of socio-philosophical issues, the movement of themes, their struggle. That subtext, that undercurrent that V. Nemirovich-Danchenko and K. Stanislavsky discovered in Chekhov’s plays, acquires decisive importance in Gorky’s “The Lower Depths.” “Gorky depicts the consciousness of people at the bottom.” The plot unfolds not so much in external action as in the dialogues of the characters. It is the conversations of the night shelters that determine the development of the dramatic conflict.

It’s an amazing thing: the more the night shelters want to hide the real state of affairs from themselves, the more they take pleasure in catching others in lies. They take special pleasure in tormenting their fellow sufferers, trying to take away from them the last thing they have - illusion

What do we see? It turns out there is no one truth. And there are at least two truths - the truth of the “bottom” and the truth of the best in a person. Which truth wins in Gorky's play? At first glance, this is true “bottom”. None of the night shelters have a way out of this “dead end of existence.” None of the characters in the play get better - only worse. Anna dies, Kleshch finally “sinks” and gives up hope of escaping from the shelter, Tatar loses his arm, which means he also becomes unemployed, Natasha dies morally and perhaps physically, Vaska Pepel goes to prison, even the bailiff Medvedev becomes one of the shelters . The shelter accepts everyone and does not let anyone out, except for one person - the wanderer Luke, who amused the unfortunate people with fairy tales and then disappeared. The culmination of general disappointment is the death of the Actor, to whom it was Luke who inspired the vain hope of recovery and a normal life.

“The comforters of this series are the most intelligent, knowledgeable and eloquent. That's why they are the most harmful. This is exactly the kind of comforter that Luke should be in the play “At the Bottom,” but I, apparently, was not able to make him like that. “At the Lower Depths” is an outdated play and, perhaps, even harmful in our days” (Gorky, 1930s).

7. Images of Satin, Baron, Bubnov in the play “At the Lower Depths”

Gorky's play "At the Lower Depths" was written in 1902 for the troupe of the Moscow Art Public Theater. For a long time, Gorky could not find the exact title for the play. Initially it was called “Nochlezhka”, then “Without the Sun” and, finally, “At the bottom”. The name itself already has a huge meaning. People who have fallen to the bottom will never rise to the light, to a new life. The theme of the humiliated and insulted is not new in Russian literature. Let us remember Dostoevsky’s heroes, who also “have nowhere else to go.” Many similarities can be found in the heroes of Dostoevsky and Gorky: this is the same world of drunkards, thieves, prostitutes and pimps. Only he is shown even more terrifyingly and realistically by Gorky. In Gorky's play, the audience saw for the first time the unfamiliar world of the rejected. World drama has never known such a harsh, merciless truth about the life of the lower social classes, about their hopeless fate. Under the arches of the Kostylevo shelter there were people of very different characters and social status. Each of them is endowed with its own individual characteristics. Here is the worker Tick, dreaming of honest work, and Ash, longing for a right life, and the Actor, completely absorbed in the memories of his past glory, and Nastya, passionately striving for great, true love. They all deserve a better fate. All the more tragic is their situation now. The people living in this cave-like basement are tragic victims of an ugly and cruel order, in which a person ceases to be human and is doomed to drag out a miserable existence. Gorky does not give a detailed account of the biographies of the characters in the play, but the few features that he reproduces perfectly reveal the author’s intention. In a few words the tragedy of Anna’s life’s fate is depicted. “I don’t remember when I was full,” she says. “I was shaking over every piece of bread... I was trembling all my life... I was tormented... so as not to eat anything else... I walked around in rags all my life... all my miserable life...” Worker Mite speaks about his hopeless lot: “There is no work... no strength... That's the truth! There is no refuge, there is no refuge! We need to breathe out... That’s the truth!” The inhabitants of the “bottom” are thrown out of life due to the conditions prevailing in society. Man is left to his own devices. If he stumbles, loses track, he is threatened with “the bottom”, inevitable moral, and often physical death. Anna dies, the Actor commits suicide, and the rest are exhausted, disfigured by life to the last degree. And even here, in this terrible world of the outcasts, the wolf laws of the “bottom” continue to operate. The figure of the hostel owner Kostylev, one of the “masters of life”, who is ready to squeeze the last penny even from his unfortunate and disadvantaged guests, is disgusting. His wife Vasilisa is equally disgusting with her immorality. The terrible fate of the inhabitants of the shelter becomes especially obvious if we compare it with what a person is called to. Under the dark and gloomy arches of the lodging house, among the pitiful and crippled, unfortunate and homeless vagabonds, words about man, about his calling, about his strength and his beauty sound like a solemn hymn: “Man is the truth! Everything is in man, everything is for man! Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Human! It's great! It sounds proud!” Proud words about what a person should be and what a person can be highlight even more sharply the picture of the actual situation of a person that the writer paints. And this contrast takes on a special meaning... Satin’s fiery monologue about man sounds somewhat unnatural in an atmosphere of impenetrable darkness, especially after Luka left, the Actor hanged himself, and Vaska Ashes was imprisoned. The writer himself felt this and explained it by the fact that in the play there should be a reasoner (an exponent of the author’s thoughts), but the heroes portrayed by Gorky can hardly be called exponents of anyone’s ideas at all. That is why Gorky puts his thoughts into the mouth of Satin, the most freedom-loving and fair character.

The author began to write the play in Nizhny Novgorod, where, according to the observation of Gorky’s contemporary, Rozov, there was the best and most convenient place for all sorts of rabble of people to gather... (I always believed that Gorky took the prototypes of the heroes in Nizhny, because he lived in this city and knew all his the future of the heroes personally). This explains the realism of the characters, their complete resemblance to the originals.

Alexey Maksimovich Gorky explores the soul and characters of tramps from different positions, in different life situations, trying to understand who they are, what led such different people to the bottom of life. The author is trying to prove that the night shelters are ordinary people; they dream of happiness, know how to love, have compassion, and most importantly, they think.

In terms of genre, the play At the Bottom can be classified as philosophical, because from the lips of the characters we hear interesting conclusions, sometimes entire social theories. For example, the Baron is consoled by the fact that there is nothing to wait for... I don't expect anything! Everything has already... happened! It's over!.. Or Bubnov So I drank and I'm glad!

But the true talent for philosophizing is manifested in Satin, a former telegraph employee. He talks about good and evil, about conscience, about the purpose of man. Sometimes we feel that he is the author’s mouthpiece; there is no one else in the play who can speak so smoothly and intelligently. His phrase Man, it sounds proud! became winged.

But Satin justifies his position with these arguments. He is a kind of ideologist of the bottom, justifying its existence. Satin preaches contempt for moral values. And where are honor and conscience? On your feet, instead of boots you can’t put on either honor or conscience... The audience is amazed by the gambler and sharper who talks about the truth, about justice, the imperfection of the world in which he himself is an outcast.

But all these philosophical quests of the hero are just a verbal duel with his antipode in worldview, with Luka. Satin's sober, sometimes cruel realism collides with the soft and flexible speeches of the wanderer. Luke fills the shelters with dreams and calls on them to be patient. In this respect, he is a truly Russian person, ready for compassion and humility. This type is deeply loved by Gorky himself. Luke does not receive any benefit from giving people hope; there is no self-interest in this. This is the need of his soul. A researcher of the work of Maxim Gorky, I. Novich, spoke about Luke this way... he consoles not from love for this life and the belief that it is good, but from capitulation to evil, reconciliation with it. For example, Luke assures Anna that a woman must endure her husband’s beatings. Be patient more! Everyone, my dear, is patient.

Having appeared unexpectedly, just as suddenly Luka disappears, revealing his potential in each inhabitant of the shelter. The heroes thought about life, injustice, their hopeless fate.

Only Bubnov and Satin have come to terms with their position as night shelters. Bubnov differs from Satin in that he considers man a worthless creature, and therefore worthy of a dirty life. People all live... like chips floating down a river... building a house... chips away...

Gorky shows that in an embittered and cruel world, only people who stand firmly on their feet, are aware of their position, and do not disdain anything can stay alive. The defenseless night shelters Baron, who lives in the past, Nastya, who replaces life with fantasies, perish in this world. Anna dies, the Actor commits suicide. He suddenly realizes the impossibility of his dream, the unreality of its implementation. Vaska Pepel, dreaming of a bright life, ends up in prison.

Luka, regardless of his will, becomes the culprit in the death of these not at all bad people; the inhabitants of the shelter do not need promises, but... specific actions that Luke is not capable of. He disappears, rather runs, thereby proving the inconsistency of his theory, the victory of reason over the dream. Thus, sinners disappear from the face of the righteous!

But Satin, like Luke, is no less responsible for the death of the Actor. After all, breaking the dream of a hospital for alcoholics, Satin breaks the last threads of the Actor’s hope that connect him with life.

Gorky wants to show that, relying only on his own strength, a person can get out of the bottom. A person can do anything... if only he wants to. But there are no such strong characters striving for freedom in the play.

In the work we see the tragedy of individuals, their physical and spiritual death. At the bottom, people lose their human dignity along with their surnames and names. Many night shelters have the nicknames Krivoy Zob, Tatar, and Actor.

How does Gorky the humanist approach the main problem of the work? Does he really recognize the insignificance of man, the baseness of his interests? No, the author believes in people who are not only strong, but also honest, hardworking, diligent. Such a person in the play is the locksmith Kleshch. He is the only bottom dweller who has a real chance of revival. Proud of his working title, Kleshch despises the rest of the night shelters. But gradually, under the influence of Satin’s speeches about the worthlessness of work, he loses self-confidence, giving up his hands in front of fate. In this case, it was no longer the crafty Luke, but Satin the tempter who suppressed hope in man. It turns out that, having different views on life positions, Satin and Luka equally push people to death.

Creating realistic characters, Gorky emphasizes everyday details, acting as a brilliant artist. The gloomy, rough and primitive existence fills the play with something ominous and oppressive, enhancing the feeling of the unreality of what is happening. The shelter, located below ground level, deprived of sunlight, somehow reminds the viewer of hell in which people die.

The scene when the dying Anna talks to Luka causes horror. This last conversation of hers is like a confession. But the conversation is interrupted by the screams of drunken gamblers and a gloomy prison song. It becomes strange to realize the frailty of human life, to neglect it, because even in the hour of death Anna is not given peace.

The author's remarks help us more fully imagine the characters in the play. Brief and clear, they contain descriptions of the heroes and help us reveal some aspects of their characters. In addition, a new, hidden meaning is discerned in the prison song introduced into the narrative. The lines I want to be free, yes, eh!.. I can’t break the chain..., show that the bottom tenaciously holds its inhabitants, and the night shelters cannot escape from its embrace, no matter how hard they try.

The play is finished, but Gorky does not give an unambiguous answer to the main questions of what is the truth of life and what a person should strive for, leaving it to us to decide. The final phrase of Satin Eh... ruined the song... fool is ambiguous and makes you think. Who is the fool? The Hanged Actor or the Baron who brought the news about this. Time passes, people change, but, unfortunately, the theme of the bottom remains relevant today. Due to economic and political turmoil, more and more people are going to the bottom of life. Every day their ranks are replenished. Don't think that these are losers. No, many smart, decent, honest people go to the bottom. They strive to quickly leave this kingdom of darkness, to act in order to live a full life again. But poverty dictates its conditions to them. And gradually a person loses all his best moral qualities, preferring to surrender to chance.

Gorky wanted to prove with his play At the Depth that only in struggle is the essence of life. When a person loses hope, stops dreaming, he loses faith in the future.

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Gorky defined the play “At the Lower Depths” as a socio-philosophical drama in which the main ones are the conflict of people with the outside world and internal conflict. One of the original titles of the play is “At the Bottom of Life,” but the writer shortened it, thereby expanding its meaning: the characters of the play are not only at the bottom of life, but also at the bottom of their own feelings and thoughts, each of them has to fight not only with circumstances , but also with yourself.

First we are introduced to social conflict. The author depicts Kostylev’s doss house for us: “A basement that looks like a cave. The ceiling is heavy, stone vaults, smoked, with crumbling plaster... Everywhere along the walls there are bunks... In the middle of the bunkhouse there is a large table, two benches, a stool, everything is unpainted and dirty » -it looks more like a prison; it’s not for nothing that its inhabitants sing the prison song “The Sun Rises and Sets.” As the play progresses, we learn about the events that led people to such a life. For example, Bubnov was married in the past, “the wife got in touch with the master” and decided to “overcome” her husband; as a result, Bubnov almost committed a crime himself, but “came to his senses in time” and left. Satin served time in prison for the murder of a “scoundrel” and now, like almost all the inhabitants of the flophouse, he drinks, plays cards, and steals. The baron came from a noble family, he “studied,” “married,” “served,” and “wasted government money.” The fates of all the heroes are different and at the same time surprisingly similar: they were at the bottom of their lives, hardships and suffering brought them here. This portrayal of the lives of the poorest sections of society is the social essence of the drama. drama conflict truth play

However, the main, philosophical question of the work is different. What is better, more saving for a person: truth or compassion?

The society of night shelters described by Gorky can be called insensitive truth-seekers. “In my opinion, tell the whole truth as it is! Why be shy?” Bubnov asserts, and the Baron behaves boorishly towards Nastya, convicting her of lying in front of everyone when she talks about her “true love”: “Do you think this is true? This is all from the book “Fatal Love”. Heroes like Anna, Nastya, and Actor are trusting, dreamy, and easily wounded by the bitter truth. They yearn for compassionate kindness, but find little sympathy from the “truth of fact” advocates. Like a ray of light, Luke appears in their joyless life. He consoles everyone, respects every person (“not a single flea is bad, all are black”), believes that a person can do anything if he wants. This faith in man is expressed in a story about two escaped convicts, the main idea of ​​which is that it is not violence or prison that can save a person and teach goodness - “A person can teach goodness...” The elder’s words that “The truth is not always true for the soul.” you will cure...”, meet resistance from many of the characters in the play. The opinion of Satin especially disagrees with this point of view. He says: “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is the god of a free man!” As an illustration of these ideas, we are told the parable of the righteous land. In it, a “man” with his belief in the existence of a righteous land and a “scientist” who refutes this dream with his maps and numbers collide with each other. Here, it would seem, lies the key to unraveling the ideological contradiction of the play “At the Bottom”: if reality does not allow a person to maintain self-esteem, then let the “truth about man” be replaced by “the truth of man,” that is, “holy faith.” After all, the naked truth that the night shelters heard from each other before the appearance of Elder Luke is of no value. It is not clear what is more in their words - a thirst for truth or a desire to humiliate and insult a person. But you also cannot live by illusions alone; we see this in the example of the Actor. Luke gave him hope for the opportunity to start a new life and return to work. The actor even “completioned” and exalted the elder’s advice about going to a hospital for alcoholics: “An excellent hospital... Marble... marble floor! Light...cleanliness, food...all for free! And marble floor, yes!” , but never did anything to implement this trip, he just continued to dream and eventually hanged himself.

The uniqueness of Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths” lies precisely in its truthfulness, starting with the description of the shelter and ending with the unresolved dispute about what is better for a person: to live in false hope or to bring down the bitter, evil truth on everyone. The value of these two points of view seems to be tested on all the characters throughout the play, but this dispute never receives a final answer. Everyone decides it for themselves.

Those who are weak at heart... and those who live on other people's juices need lies... some are supported by it, others hide behind it... And who is his own master... who is independent and does not eat someone else's things - why does he need lies?

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Genre features. The problem of the genre of M. Gorky's play “At the Lower Depths” has been little studied. Critics of the early 20th century associated Gorky's play with a genre variety of philosophical drama. “Gorky does not have a single hero who does not philosophize,” wrote K. Chukovsky. “Everyone appears on its pages and begins to express their philosophy.” Everyone speaks in aphorisms; no one lives independently, but only for aphorisms. They live and move not for the sake of movement, not for life, but to philosophize.”

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I. Annensky believed that “At the Lower Depths” is a real drama, only not quite ordinary, close in genre to tragedy.

Later, Gorky’s work was called “new drama.” In literary criticism in recent years, the genre of the play “At the Bottom” is defined as a new type of socio-philosophical drama, in which the main burden falls on the monologues and dialogues of the characters and on the dramatic conflict.

Genre features of “At the Bottom”

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The play “At the Lower Depths” was conceived by Gorky as one of four plays in a cycle showing the life and worldview of people from different walks of life. This is one of the two purposes of creating a work. The deep meaning that the author put into it is an attempt to answer the main questions of human existence: what a person is and whether he will retain his personality, having sunk “to the bottom” of moral and social existence.

History of the play

The first evidence of work on the play dates back to 1900, when Gorky, in a conversation with Stanislavsky, mentioned his desire to write scenes from the life of a flophouse. Some sketches appeared at the end of 1901. In a letter to the publisher K. P. Pyatnitsky, to whom the author dedicated the work, Gorky wrote that in the planned play all the characters, the idea, the motives for the actions were clear to him, and “it will be scary.” The final version of the work was ready on July 25, 1902, published in Munich and went on sale at the end of the year.

Things were not so rosy with the production of the play on the stages of Russian theaters - it was practically banned. An exception was made only for the Moscow Art Theater; other theaters had to obtain special permission for the production.

The title of the play changed at least four times during the work, and the genre was never determined by the author - the publication read “At the Bottom of Life: Scenes.” The shortened and familiar name to everyone today first appeared on the theater poster during the first production at the Moscow Art Theater.

The first performers were the star cast of the Moscow Art Academic Theater: K. Stanislavsky played the role of Satin, V. Kachalov - Barona, I. Moskvin - Luke, O. Knipper - Nastya, M. Andreeva - Natasha.

The main plot of the work

The plot of the play is tied to the relationships of the characters and the atmosphere of general hatred that reigns in the shelter. This is the outer outline of the work. A parallel action explores the depth of a person’s fall “to the bottom,” the measure of insignificance of a socially and spiritually degraded individual.

The action of the play begins and ends with the storyline of the relationship between two characters: the thief Vaska Pepel and the wife of the owner of the rooming house Vasilisa. Ash loves her little sister Natasha. Vasilisa is jealous and constantly beats her sister. She also has another interest in her lover - she wants to free herself from her husband and pushes Ash to murder. During the course of the play, Ash actually kills Kostylev in a quarrel. In the last act of the play, the guests of the shelter say that Vaska will have to go to hard labor, but Vasilisa will still “get out.” Thus, the action loops around the destinies of the two heroes, but is far from limited to them.

The time period of the play is several weeks of early spring. The time of year is an important component of the play. One of the first titles given by the author to the work is “Without the Sun.” Indeed, there is spring all around, a sea of ​​sunshine, but in the shelter and in the souls of its inhabitants there is darkness. The ray of sunshine for the overnight shelters was Luka, a tramp whom Natasha brings in one day. Luke brings hope for a happy outcome to the hearts of people who have fallen and lost faith in the best. However, at the end of the play, Luka disappears from the shelter. The characters who trusted him lose faith in the best. The play ends with the suicide of one of them - the Actor.

Play Analysis

The play describes the life of a Moscow flophouse. The main characters, accordingly, were its inhabitants and the owners of the establishment. Also in it appear people related to the life of the establishment: a policeman, who is also the uncle of the hostess of the rooming house, a dumpling seller, loaders.

Satin and Luka

Schuler, the former convict Satin and the tramp, wanderer Luke are carriers of two opposing ideas: the need for compassion for a person, a saving lie out of love for him, and the need to know the truth, as proof of a person’s greatness, as a sign of trust in his strength of spirit. In order to prove the falsity of the first worldview and the truth of the second, the author built the action of the play.

Other characters

All the other characters form the background for this battle of ideas. In addition, they are designed to show and measure the depth of the fall to which a person is capable of falling. The drunkard Actor and the terminally ill Anna, people who have completely lost faith in their own strength, fall under the power of a wonderful fairy tale into which Luke takes them. They are the most dependent on it. With his departure, they physically cannot live and die. The rest of the inhabitants of the shelter perceive Luka's appearance and departure as the play of a spring sunbeam - he appeared and disappeared.

Nastya, who sells her body “on the boulevard,” believes that there is bright love, and it was in her life. Kleshch, the husband of the dying Anna, believes that he will rise from the bottom and begin to earn a living by working again. The thread that connects him with his working past remains a toolbox. At the end of the play, he is forced to sell them in order to bury his wife. Natasha hopes that Vasilisa will change and stop torturing her. After another beating, after leaving the hospital, she will no longer appear in the shelter. Vaska Pepel strives to stay with Natalya, but cannot get out of the networks of the powerful Vasilisa. The latter, in turn, expects that the death of her husband will untie her hands and give her the long-awaited freedom. The Baron lives on from his aristocratic past. The gambler Bubnov, the destroyer of “illusions,” the ideologist of misanthropy, believes that “all people are superfluous.”

The work was created in conditions when, after the economic crisis of the 90s of the 19th century, factories shut down in Russia, the population was rapidly becoming poor, many found themselves on the bottom rung of the social ladder, in the basement. Each of the characters in the play experienced a fall to the bottom, social and moral, in the past. Now they live in the memory of this, but they cannot rise “to the light”: they don’t know how, they don’t have the strength, they are ashamed of their insignificance.

Main characters

Luke became a light for some. Gorky gave Luka a “speaking” name. It refers both to the image of St. Luke and to the concept of “cunning.” It is obvious that the author seeks to show the inconsistency of Luke’s ideas about the beneficial value of Faith for man. Gorky practically reduces Luka’s compassionate humanism to the concept of betrayal - according to the plot of the play, the tramp leaves the shelter just when those who trusted him need his support.

Satin is a figure designed to voice the author’s worldview. As Gorky wrote, Satin is not quite a suitable character for this, but there is simply no other character with equally powerful charisma in the play. Satin is the ideological antipode of Luke: he does not believe in anything, he sees the ruthless essence of life and the situation in which he and the rest of the inhabitants of the shelter find themselves. Does Satin believe in Man and his power over the power of circumstances and mistakes made? The passionate monologue that he delivers, arguing in absentia with the departed Luka, leaves a strong but contradictory impression.

There is also a bearer of the “third” truth in the work - Bubnov. This hero, like Satin, “stands for the truth,” only it is somehow very scary for him. He is a misanthrope, but, in essence, a murderer. Only they die not from the knife in his hands, but from the hatred that he has for everyone.

The drama of the play increases from act to act. The connecting outline is Luke's comforting conversations with those suffering from his compassion and Satin's rare remarks, indicating that he listens attentively to the speeches of the tramp. The climax of the play is Satin’s monologue, delivered after Luke’s departure and flight. Phrases from it are often quoted because they have the appearance of aphorisms; “Everything in a person is everything for a person!”, “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is the god of a free person!”, “Man - this sounds proud!”

Conclusion

The bitter result of the play is the triumph of the freedom of fallen man to perish, disappear, leave, leaving behind neither a trace nor memories. The inhabitants of the shelter are free from society, moral standards, family and livelihood. By and large, they are free from life.

The play “At the Lower Depths” has been around for more than a century and continues to remain one of the most powerful works of Russian classics. The play makes you think about the place of faith and love in a person’s life, about the nature of truth and lies, about a person’s ability to resist moral and social decline.